Banishing Nightmares
by lostinabook
Summary: Luso's nightmares are keeping Adelle up at night. Takes place after the Rumors Abound mission. Luso/Adelle. Some spoilers. One-shot.


Disclaimer: The following is a fan-made creation. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is the property of Square Enix. I make no claim of ownership on the game or the characters. No profit was or will be made from this work. If at any point the copyright holders request that fan creations based off their work be taken down, I will comply with their wishes.

* * *

This was getting ridiculous.

Adelle sat up in bed, glaring blearily at the opposite wall. She could hear him on the other side, shouting nonsense words and groaning in his sleep. If she didn't already know what his problem was, then she'd think that something perverse was going on over there. Adelle grabbed one of her spare pillows and flung it at the wall, hoping that it would make some kind of sound to shut him up. Instead it made a soft _wump _and slid down to the floor, doubling over on itself.

After a moment's silence, Adelle could hear Luso's sleep talking again, and with a deep sigh she pulled her remaining pillow around her head, trying to block out the noise. Luso hadn't been the same since he'd collapsed in the fens, and because of that Adelle had given him a pass on his weird behavior. But now he had interrupted her beauty sleep one too many times.

_That idiot is treating me to lunch tomorrow. And dinner. And he's buying me that new Galmia Pepe hat if he doesn't stop right this—_

The shouting started again, setting her teeth on edge. She flung the second pillow away from her, this time hitting the door. "That's it." Adelle pulled back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed to stand up. She grabbed her pillow on the way to the door, clutching it to her chest as she tried to ignore how cold the floor was under her bare feet.

She opened the door as quietly as she could, praying to whatever sicon listening to not let the door squeak. It didn't. Adelle closed the door softly behind her, barely making a sound, and staring at the door across from hers all the while. Cid was sleeping in there, and the last thing she needed was for him to wake up and make some snide comment about her being up so late. She started to wonder if he'd given her this room on purpose, since he was fully aware of Luso's sleeptalking.

Satisfied that Cid was asleep, or at least not interested in what was going on outside, Adelle tiptoed the next few feet to Luso's door. Placing her hand on the doorknob, she readied her pillow with the other, ready to throw it across her shoulder and straight into Luso stupid, sleep-talking face. Adelle turned the knob and pushed the door open just as quietly as she had done before, eyes sweeping the room and ready to take aim—

His bed was on the exact opposite side of the door, the headboard pushed up against the wall they both shared. The bedsheets were a tangled mess, with only Luso's head and arms free. His hands were twisted into the top of a blanket, and his face was bunched up in pain. Adelle could see tear lines running down his face. Her arm fell to her side, the pillow trailing along the floor once again.

Well, that wasn't fair.

She's expected him to be sleeping the way he normally did, like she'd seen when the clan would have to camp out in the middle of who-knows-where while chasing after a mission. Luso slept sprawled out, mouth wide open and occasionally snored, but not anything too loud. But this… This was just sad. Not even immediately after he swallowed the wisp had he been like this.

Adelle put a hand on her hip, at a loss. She didn't have the heart to beat him with the pillow anymore, but his sleep-yelling would start again any time now. _Maybe I just need more pillows to hide under. _Adelle turned away. _Yeah… Maybe the walls are just really thin here. If I give it another shot, maybe I can get two to three hours in—_

"Aunt May."

Adelle froze. Had Luso woken up? It didn't sound like sleep-talking or sleep-yelling…just a normal volume statement. Then what he said sunk in. _Who?_

She turned back towards Luso, who had curled himself into an even tighter ball and was mumbling in his sleep. Adelle let out the breath she'd been unconsciously holding. She hadn't woken him up. Good.

"Sorry… home… soon…"

A fresh tear rolled down his cheek, and Adelle felt something deep in her heart twist. She remembered dark alleyways, adult faces faces regarding her with pity or contempt, but never helping because she was _different_. She remembered being curled up, crying all through the cold nights, wishing that someone would take her back, take her home, even though even at that age she knew that there was no place to return to anymore.

Adelle shook her head, biting back her own tears. She shoved the memories back down to the deepest place in her heart, where hopefully they wouldn't resurface again. _This is stupid. Luso's life is nothing like mine. He has friends and a clan to support him… A roof over his head… We're even going halfway across the continent to stop his bad dreams, for crying out loud! He has people who care about him. He doesn't know—_

But even through her internal reasoning, Adelle could feel her resistance breaking down. His situation wasn't as horrible as hers had been, true, but at the root it was the same. Adelle honestly didn't know what she would do if she were dropped into a strange world with little hope of seeing her home again. All things considered, Luso was doing the best with his situation. Adelle sighed. She couldn't leave him now.

She stepped further into the room, and after a moment's thought, closed the door behind her, remembering Cid's strange fondness for pre-dawn walks. Now she could barely see, the moonlight mostly blocked out by the curtain on the window. Luso was silent for the first time. Adelle cursed her luck. If she'd waited just a couple more minutes, then she could've gone to sleep and missed this sudden encounter with empathy.

Adelle kneeled down next to Luso's bed, placing the pillow underneath her knees. Up close, even with the poor lighting, she could see that he was shaking on top of everything else. Holding back a sigh, Adelle practiced what she was going to do if he woke up. First, she'd try to convince him that it was a dream, that she was some part of his subconscious that was, for whatever reason, represented by her. If that failed, then she was going with the original plan; hit him with the pillow until he apologized for waking her up and making her go through so much trouble.

That decided, she reached out and lightly covered one of his hands with hers.

After a moment, Luso's shaking subsided a bit and his face seemed to relax just a little. Adelle was honestly surprised. How old was this kid again? He was acting like a baby fussing in its crib, looking for a finger to hold on to as it fell asleep. Regardless, it seemed like her idea was working, and he hadn't woken up. There had to be something more…

An idea floated into her head, or rather something like a memory that made her heart twist again. It was something left over from the time that she'd forced herself to forget. Still, it was a good idea, but if she tried it she ran an even higher risk of Luso waking up.

With her free hand, Adelle began petting Luso's head like a cat. In the smallest voice she could manage, she started talking to him too. "There there… There there… It's all right, everything is going to be all right…"

Within a few minutes, Luso had settled into a relaxed sleeping pose, his face calm. A slight snore came out of his mouth. Adelle almost laughed at him. He really was easy to read, even when he was asleep. She began to pull her hands away, happy with a job well done and ready to get some rest, when one of Luso's hands grabbed her wrist.

"Adelle."

She'd been caught. She couldn't even look at him. He'd woken up somehow. She'd been so close to getting away with it too! Adelle finally turned her head back to him, ready to make the dream excuse only to see that Luso's eyes were still closed. He'd been sleep-talking again.

He looked completely peaceful, but his hand was a clamp around her wrist. Adelle could easily pry his fingers off, but that would wake him up. Possibly. She looked at her trapped hand and then back to Luso. _Now what?_

* * *

The small break in the curtains was enough for a beam of morning sunlight to sneak through and shine directly in Luso's face. It took a minute but eventually it woke him up. He yawned and sat up, stretching his arms.

It was the first time in a while that he'd gotten a decent night's sleep. He couldn't really tell what was different this time, though. Luso sat on the edge of the bed and thought, the hazy memory of his dream already slipping away.

The dreams had started out the same way that they always did, memories of home and the day he left it that would warp into some strange landscape. He didn't know why, but seeing it filled him with fear. Last night was different though. Just as the terror had set in, he'd felt a hand on his, pulling him back and a voice speaking to him. Luso didn't remember what they'd said, but it had sounded like Adelle for some reason. He also didn't remember if the dream continued after that, but Luso wasn't too concerned about that.

Luso gave up and got dressed. The reason didn't really matter; the point was that he'd been freed from his nightmares for a little while. And they were only a little ways away from the place mentioned on the request, so hopefully son he'd be able to banish them for good. Making a last adjustment on his hat, he opened the door.

The door of the room next to him opened at the same time, revealing an exhausted-looking Adelle. She had a pretty severe case of bedhead, and there were bags under her eyes. She glared at Luso. Confused and slightly scared, Luso held up a hand in hello. "Good… morning?"

Adelle snorted. "What's so good about it? Your shouting kept me up all night."

"Oh, uh, sorry." Luso rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "That's weird, actually… My nightmares kinda… went away last night."

He didn't think that it was possible for Adelle glare to get more intense, but it did. "So you're telling me that we've been chasing this ghost for no reason?"

"No, no, it's not like that, it's just…" Luso waved his hands, trying to think of a way to explain it that would calm Adelle down. "It started out that way, but then it…stopped? I guess?"

For a moment it looked like that wasn't good enough, but then Adelle sighed and walked past him towards the stairs, looking more tired that before. Luso's eyes followed her in concern, and he could've sword he heard her say something like, "wouldn't let go until dawn."

"Did you say something?"

"_**No**_." Adelle began walking down the stairs, and somehow Luso knew that he was in for one of those days, even though he didn't know what he'd done wrong. He knew that he was loud, but she hadn't complained about his nightmares before.

"Breakfast better be ready," Adelle shouted on the stairs. Luso wasn't sure if she was talking to him anymore. "This inn _sucks_."


End file.
